A circuit arrangement of this kind is known from the prior art. It is constituted essentially in the form of a buck converter with downstream-connected ignition or firing device for the discharge lamp, wherein the cited inductor represents the ignition inductor. In practice it has now been recognized that discharge lamps that are operated on such a circuit arrangement sometimes go out. As a result of the introduction of additional ohmic resistors into the output circuit, i.e. in series with the discharge lamp, it was possible to a large extent to prevent the extinction. However, this solution is undesirable with regard to the resulting power dissipation.